Casio is really famous for producing millions of great electronic
products and have been designing and building digital pianos
for well over 40 years. The new AP-270 is part of a traditional
furniture cabinet line of digital pianos called Celviano. The
new AP-270 is the lowest price digital piano in the Celviano
line and has now been released in India. It will be available
in satin black finish including a matching piano style padded
bench. The new AP-270 has some very distinct upgrades over
the previous model AP-260 in a number of ways and the AP-260
was the same price as the new AP-270.
1. Redesigned cabinet – Casio has given the piano cabinet a
good overhaul with fewer seams, smoother installation, more
piano-like in appearance. Even the speakers under the piano
have been redesigned to be more "invisible" and less obvious to
give the cabinet a more realistic look.
2. The piano sound chip – The sound engine has been
noticeably improved along with an exclusive stereo piano
sound sample from a handmade New York Steinway 9' grand
piano. Up until now Casio and others have used sound samples
from a variety of pianos including from Europe, but never
from a real New York custom 9' concert grand. The new AP-270
is the only Casio piano made out of all models with this new
Steinway piano sound and I can tell you first hand that it is the
best piano sound for a traditional piano cabinet digital piano in
this price range that I have ever heard. Beyond that, the New
York Steinway sound has a couple of variations to it which also
sound great. I was very impressed when I played and heard this
new piano sound and did not expect the AP-270 to sound as good
as it did. Also when you use a good pair of stereo headphones
the stereo Steinway piano sound is even better because you get
to hear all the tonal nuances coming directly into your ears.
3. The sustain pedal – The sustain pedal and its ability to
hold the piano sound out over time and then to have that sound
decay and fade out is crucial to any intermediate to advanced
pianist and that's where many of these digital pianos fall short.
This time the new model has more than twice the realism in
sustain/decay time of the piano tone along with the volume of
the sustained piano sound to hold a more realistic level before
fading out. I noticed this change from the previous model right
away and for people that play piano at a higher level than
a beginner, this new upgrade will simply make your music
sound better with a more organic tone like a real piano. Along
with half-damper pedaling for more natural piano sustain at
different pedal depths and the improved damper resonance
which gives the piano sound a more organic natural reverb
(echo) response especially when playing on the high octave
keys that don't normally have good sustain.
4. The Polyphony in this new piano – The polyphony has been
increased from the previous 128-note polyphony to the new 192-
note polyphony. This is considered as piano’s processing power
which enables the piano sound to be larger, fuller, and more
resonant along with being able to play more complex music
without notes dropping out or sustain time being too short.
5. 22 Built-in Tones - The AP-270 now has 22 separate
instrument sounds which are an increase from the previous
model and all of those sounds have been improved to be
even more like the real thing including the electric pianos,
harpsichords, organs, choirs, etc. and as mentioned earlier also
the acoustic piano tones. It is interesting to note there are now
a total of 7 distinct acoustic piano sounds using a New York
Steinway grand piano sound and a European grand piano sound
which is far more than the other brands in this price range. The
main piano sounds are also easily accessible with buttons on
the control panel. Most people want a variety of actual acoustic
piano sounds rather than the non-piano sounds so this new
Casio AP-270 delivers on this point.
6. New Control Panel - The control panel of the new model
has changed from having the buttons above the keys to having
them on the left side of the keyboard. Casio did this to make the
piano look more minimalist and give it a cleaner appearance
with a bit less clutter. Casio has placed the names of the sounds
and additional functions above the keyboard so they are easy
to find and this is done through with pressing one button and
then using a specific key to trigger the feature. It's fairly easy
to operate and much easier than similar control panels in other
brands because the features (sounds, effects, metronome, etc.),
are labeled on the new AP-270.
7. Simulated Ebony & Ivory Keys - The tops of the keys are
made of synthetic ebony & ivory material to replicate the older
real acoustic pianos from many years ago when ivory and
ebony were legal to be made into piano key tops. Casio has been
using this material on their keys for a number of years now but
in this model Casio has redesigned and upgraded the "feel" of
those key tops by changing and smoothing out the texture so
that it feels more like actual ivory and ebony and I noticed this
change right away when playing the piano. When you touch
those keys the surface now feels better and is more natural
to play. This is a relatively small change but a good one and
shows that Casio is paying attention to the details as well as the
big things.
As you can see by the improvements I just mentioned that this
new AP-270 really does have many significant advantages in all
aspects of this piano, but at the same time Casio has kept some
nicer previous features and functions of the AP-260. This would
include layering of two sounds together for simultaneous
play such as string symphony and grand piano, as well as a
split sound function allowing for an instrument sound on the
left hand and a different instrument sound on the right hand.
Other useful functions and features carried over to this model
include transpose, an adjustable metronome for rhythm and
timing training, and last but not least a 2-track MIDI recorder
for left and right-hand piano practice and playback. This 2-part
recording system is something other digital pianos in this price
range do not have and being able to record and playback your
left and right hand separately is really useful for students. Most
students need to practice and hear each hand one at a time,
and for more advanced players, they want to analyze their
performance by listening to how each hand is doing one at a
time and then played back together. You can also speed up or
slow down the playback portion so that you can record the song
at a slow speed and playback at normal speed or you can record
at a normal speed but playback at a slower speed so you can
better hear how you played and identify your mistakes better
that way.
So here's the bottom line; The AP-270 is a lower priced
digital piano with higher priced features in an attractive
traditional furniture cabinet with matching piano bench,
sliding key cover, and full privacy panel with features
that concentrate and focuses on the best piano playing
experience possible in its price range. It does not have a
lot of unnecessary bells & whistles so is great for families
or players who mainly just want to play the piano and
have the necessary elements in a piano to do so. With
the improvements that Casio has made to this Celviano
model as compared to the previous model and the current
competition out there, there really is no other digital
piano that comes close in this price range in my opinion.
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
47